For Online Sermon November 29,2020

Going Deeper

By Pat Russell

Considering the sermon by Wayne Otte, entitled "Giving Thanks," on November 29, 2020

Corinthians 1:3-9

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge — God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

As we continue to focus on living in the Kingdom of Heaven during this Advent season, in yesterday’s service we were given practical ways to live this out. 

The first is in choosing HOPE over despair.  I suggest that you might read the Candle of Hope Liturgy again today.  Make your own Advent wreath with a circle of candles and light the candle of hope.  Light that candle every evening this week.  Then, if you have not gone to the Candle of Hope virtual gathering, spend some time with Brooke meditating on hope at this link. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhABAzNY3Xs&feature=youtu.be 

 

Wayne gives us another beautiful way of living in the Kingdom of Heaven this Advent season – giving thanks for people. Giving thanks, especially for people in our lives will not only enrich their lives, and our lives, but the lives of the people all around us. “Thanks beget thanks.” Wayne pointed out that Paul expresses thanks over and over in his letters with people he knew were living in the Kingdom of Heaven, people who were the “underdogs” in the Roman world because they were followers on Jesus. 

Then Wayne told us stories of people he knew at the Network Coffee House who we might say are the “underdogs” of our society, and yet they are living out thanks as they help serve others on the streets of Denver. Gary, the grump, who may look one way, but he really has a heart of service.  Wazee, who “received” a condemning letter while he slept, and yet he was not that judged person in Wayne’s heart and in God’s heart.  Wayne loved him and is thankful for who he was.

These are people giving thanks for others, handing out thanks in the way they live.  Wayne is a living example of being thankful for others in the world of the Network Coffee House, of seeing Kingdom of Heaven hearts.

This, in my mind, begs the question, “For whom in my life do I give thanks?  Who is someone that has blessed me quietly just because they are who they are?  Who is someone who may be difficult, but I see their heart?”  As a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth as it is in Heaven, I will choose to walk with hope and thanksgiving for others this Advent Season.  In this way, as Wayne points out, the Kingdom of Heaven spreads.  Amen.

For Online Sermon November 22, 2020

By Pat Russell

Considering the Sermon by Mike Banta, entitled "Grateful for Good News," on November 22, 2020

Colossians 1:9-20

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

As we come to the last Sunday before Advent, Mike reminded us that we have been preparing for living in the Kingdom of Heaven each Sunday in November.  We are in transition as a church and that transition will lead us more deeply into the Kingdom of Heaven.  What a wonderful way to conclude this series by thinking about the glorious Good News given us by God for which we can be thankful! 

I hope you filled in your sermon notes as we played Jeopardy with Paul! This was just a portion of a letter filled with all the goodness of God given to the Colossians. You could read the whole book this Thanksgiving week!  After all, we too are a small town like Colossae near a big city. You can also use your notes to strengthen your “thanks muscle” in these unprecedented days.  Here is what I suggest: 

Take the points given in Topics 1 & 2 and turn them into short prayers of thanks.  For example, the first point under Topic 1 is: “We are strengthened with all power.”  My prayer of thanks – “Lord, thank you for giving me all power to serve Larry while he is recovering from his knee surgery.” Or for the third point, “We share in the inheritance of the saints in Light,” my prayer of thanks is, “Thank you for the life of my friend Carol who is now among the saints in Light.  I am grateful to be able to share with her in Your inheritance.”  OK, now you try. You might even want to do this on Thanksgiving Day.

Did you look up Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper painting after the service this morning? I did. I had to see the focus of his work through the story that Mike related this morning. Nothing distracting from Christ. “Christ alone.” 

If you didn’t, you may want to take time to go deeper by doing what Phil Wood described as “visio divina.”  Here are his suggestions for going deeper in your spiritual life through dwelling on a painting.  “What is going on in this painting? What details do you notice? What may be inferred but not seen? What do you read in the faces of the people? What might God be saying to you, personally, through this work of art?”  I would add, study Jesus’ hands and the space around Jesus.  What does that say to you about Christ alone that was so important to da Vinci?

Let’s make this a week of unprecedented THANKS GIVING!

For Online Sermon November 15, 2020

Going Deeper

By Pat Russell

Considering the sermon entitled "Don't Quit Yet" by C. J. Biewenga on November 15, 2020

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

3:6 Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.
3:7 For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you,
3:8 and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you.
3:9 This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.
3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.
3:11 For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.
3:12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.
3:13 Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

 

When I listened to CJ preach this Sunday, I had to ask myself, “Where in my life do I feel like quitting?”  Once again, we saw the ground shift for our service design – no singing; do I feel like giving up on being a part of the service?  A very dear friend of mine for 40 years died last Sunday; do I feel like not getting too close to anyone again?  My brother-in-law who is on dialysis was diagnosed with COVID; do I feel like letting him go?  Marilyn Travis found out that Robert has been exposed to COVID after she spent time with him in the car; do I feel like never going anywhere again with anyone? My neighbor friend voted differently than I did; do I feel like giving up on our relationship?  So many people in our country are angry, disappointed, discouraged in some way; do I feel like giving up?  After all Larry and I could just hole up in our sweet home after his surgery and wait for the return of Jesus. 

 

CJ, in looking at this seemingly strange passage today, “hit the nail on the head,” as they say.  He gave us an understanding of the heart of Paul for this community of faith that he, Silas and Timothy had invested in over the years. I wonder if Paul would be saying to us today some of the same things that he said to the Thessalonian church. I have to ask, what would he want to say to me?

 

Here’s an imagined exhortation from Paul, his straight talk to all of us.  You can put your name in the blank space:  “So, _______, what is your motivation in doing what you are doing these days?  Are you motivated by love, or wanting to create disruption?  How are you waiting for the return of the Lord, as a busybody, in idleness, or are you quietly doing your work in the kingdom of heaven?  Is there any way you can be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity? (1 Tim. 4:12). You may be tired of this shifting ground, ________, but this is what I say to you, ‘do not be weary in doing what is right.’  Can you do that, ________? After all, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin, (Heb 12:4) as the Thessalonian fellowship has.”

 

Lord, thank you for your Word, for those in the Thessalonian church who came before us as kingdom citizens, for Paul who understood the realities of the kingdom of heaven, for CJ who studied all of this in order to give us a Word from you.  May we continue to not quit in these days of trial.  We need your strength, your wisdom, your love.  We cannot do it on our own.  Amen.

For Online Sermon November 8, 2020

Going Deeper

 

By Phil Wood

 

Considering the sermon by Pat Russell on November 8, 2020

 

Scripture Reading, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, 13-15

 

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us – whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter – asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not be until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

 

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as first fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

_____________________________________________

 

Pat's message yesterday morning was powerful and clear. She took aim at all the things that tend to make us unsettled in these days we're living through, things that can cut us loose from our moorings and set us adrift in uncertainty. And she asked two very important questions, questions that I don't want to just be forgotten, now that her sermon has been delivered and the recording is about to be added to the archives.

 

We wonder what could those sneaky republicans (democrats) be up to now? Or, what is the president up to with that angry tweet this morning? Or what is our future president up to, now that it's time for action? If we're not careful, our time and energy can get drawn along these paths of thought when all along, Pat said, we should be asking...

 

Key Question #1: "What is God up to?"

 

So, would you pause right now and give this question the serious prayer and honest contemplation it deserves? What is God up to, in the events going on around you, in your own heart? Are you standing firm and holding fast to the teachings passed along to you, or are you being drawn along other paths that  are not of eternal consequence? Would it make a difference in your course of action if you asked this key question before responding to any event or statement that comes your way? It sure would for me.

 

Key Question #2: Who are you in Christ?

 

Apparently, God wanted me to hear and consider this question more deeply than I ever have, because he put the question before me twice yesterday morning; once in Pat's sermon, and once in our adult Sunday School lesson that followed the worship service via Zoom.

 

The enemy beckons us away from our identity in Christ. In our Sunday school lesson, author Chris Hodges said, "Don't go anywhere till you get that worked out...If we're not anchored in Christ, if we haven't drawn the line in the sand that we refuse to cross, then our hearts can easily become seduced by cultural gods and then cave to temptation. Our enemy can take us out of the race and rob us of the purpose, peace, and joy that God created us to experience."

 

To me, that just doubled down on what Pat said in her sermon, "If we don't remember what our identity is in Christ," she said, "we become unsettled, we become unsure, we become angry, we will resent, we will judge, we will become all the things that the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom is not about."

 

So, again I ask, will you now take a few moments to address this second question in your own heart with sincerity and honesty? Who are you in Christ?

 

Hint: Here are some answers suggested by Pat as spelled out in the above passage from 2 Thessalonians and elsewhere in Scripture.

 

You are a person who is loved by God no matter what.

 

You are chosen as first fruit, chosen to be one who lives out the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)

 

You are saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

 

You are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and that citizenship that supersedes your citizenship in this country and the world.

 

You are called so that you might share in the glory of the Lord Jesus.

 

Amen.